5 Tips for Effectively Evaluating a Home Based Business Opportunity

Whether you're looking into network marketing or franchising, evaluating the viability of any home based business opportunity should be the first thing you'll do before signing on the dotted line.

5 Tips for Effectively Evaluating a Home Based Business Opportunity

In evaluating a home based business opportunity, remember to factor in all aspects of the business as well as personal considerations and preferences.

Are you capable of managing the business?

Do you have the requisite knowledge, skills, abilities, talents, and experience for it? Does it require you to exhibit a particular degree of expertise in a certain field? Would be there certain skills that may be not necessary but advantageous to have? If you find yourself lacking in certain ways, will you be able to manage without them or would you have to delegate certain activities? Could you learn them at the same time you're managing your business?

What resources are required?

There are 4 important M's in setting up a business: money, manpower, materials, and machinery. In terms of investment, how much will you have to shell out? Do you have any other financing options? Is it necessary to hire someone to help you out? Will there be raw materials you'll have to find a permanent supplier for? What about machinery? Will you need a special license to operate them?

How do you plan to market it?

In marketing, there are 5 P's considered essential: product, price, place, promotion, and people.

Let's start with product. What kind of product are you going to sell? All your decisions will be mostly based on your product so it's important to choose something whose value you sincerely believe in and one you believe has excellent growth potential.

What about people? More specifically, who makes up your target market? Are they within the vicinity or would launching your business online make gaining access to them easier? You should work on getting to know your target market, understanding what shapes their buying decisions, and what commonly concerns them to determine what could make your home based business opportunity more viable.

How about pricing? This is a marketing strategy of its own: an expensive price tag can transform your product into a status symbol while an affordable price can make it more appealing to the masses.

As far as locations are concerned, you're probably going to have an online store and use your home as your place of business. Make sure, however, that your business won't be violating any local zoning regulations.

Finally, consider the most effective promotions you can use for the business and whether you're capable of going through with them.

What's the ROI of the business?

ROI stands for return on investment. It basically gives you a time frame on how soon you'll be able to recoup your investment. Naturally, you'd want to have a return as early as possible, but a longer timeframe doesn't necessarily make a business unfeasible. You'll have to consider several factors like market conditions and industry regulations to determine whether the resulting ROI is acceptable or not.

How will it affect the rest of your life?

Finally, you should consider your personal life when evaluating a home based business opportunity. Having a home business will definitely create some changes in your lives changes that could affect your family and loved ones as well. It could require you to tighten the purse strings for the first few years. But on the other hand, it could also mean a good change, like having more time with your family.